Digital Scrapbooking

As a crafty person everyone expects me to scrapbook, but the truth is it never really caught on with me. I made a few two-page layouts for the State Fair (and won a few ribbons!) but I just didn't have the time or money or attention span to do that for all my adventures. It feels like an obligation more than fun, so I just never really picked it up.

That said, I really do like to take pictures and document my life. And since I've gotten a digital camera I take a lot more - but print a lot fewer. So there are these nebulous computer files floating around of my life, with no real organization or point.

After my wedding I made several photo books on MPIX.com, which were BEAUTIFUL. I loved the quality (they mostly work with professional photographers) and I slaved for hours to include all the most important memories I'd want to look at for years to come. They weren't cheap - I want to say around $50 per book - but when they came, I poured over them for hours. My mom did too - so I gave her the first set as a gift, assuming I could just reprint them.

Not so.

Unbeknown st to me, the Mpix system has a quirk whereby if you at all change the folder that the photos are drawn from, the whole book disappears.

So, I made the books on my work computer, drawing from the "My photos" folder.

Then, the moment I added another photo to that folder (as I happened to do, since my life had a FEW more documentable moments after my wedding)POOF!

Gone.
Finished.
Nonexistent.
MOTHERTRUCKER!

I called the company, since it was only recently, to see if they could do a re-order on their end. NOPE. They don't keep any of the files after the book is printed.

The bottom line: do it all again from scratch...or don't.

I pouted and ignored it for a few years.

Then couple years ago I won a drawing at the Roseville Women of Today Holiday Craft Fair for a free 5" x 5" book from Heritage Makers. It looked similar to Snapfish but was run like Tupperware - independent consultants doing their own marketing and in-home parties. I dawdled and was slow to start, but eventually I went to a workshop and learned the easy system, and long story short, I'm now a really big fan.

I am probably a little OCD, one of the things about traditional scrapbooks that really bothered me was that they were really big, heavy, and not flat. They were fragile with all the embellishments, and not really transportable. Heritage Makers books are consistent sizes so they look GREAT lined up on a shelf. They are essentially "flat" so there aren't any pieces to worry about knocking off or ripping or catching. They're light and easy to transport, with a durable hard cover.

You can still embellish, just with digital items - and they have a lot to choose from. Varied fonts, backgrounds, even "ribbons" and "brads" and stuff that would look like "stickers." But instead of paying $2.99 per piece and spending hours going to the store, picking it out, gluing it down....it's all included.

If you lose or wreck your Heritage Maker's book, they'll reprint it AT HALF PRICE! Wow, that's a nice insurance policy. That means fire, flood, ugly divorce - you can still get your memories back at any time.

And unlike Mpix, Heritage Makers is an online program so I can do it from anywhere (i.e. work as well as home), my books are stored on THEIR SERVERS (not on my computer) and guaranteed to be there "FOREVER." Legally I'm not sure what that means, but it works for me.

Heritage Makers is also a nice backup for your photos - with the premier membership you have unlimited space on their secure servers to store all your photos and scans as long as you are a member. You can also retrieve the photos from the account, so if your computer crashes (we've lost 2 to various viruses and one to hardware programs) or you have a fire, flood, whatever - you don't have to worry about it, it's safe.

So far I've published 5 of my own 8" x 8" books, and a 5" x 5" for a gift, as well as a set of playing cards (more about that later). I'm really happy, and so many people have asked me about it that I decided to host a workshop.

I'm not crazy about home parties (though I've had two this year, and previous Tupperware parties...so it seems like I do, but I promise, I don't really feel comfortable with the premise) and I have this turmoil about pressuring people to buy stuff, and especially when the host gets free stuff based on what the guests are guilted into buying - maybe you understand, it just makes me feel uncomfortable. But I like this system enough, and think a lot of other people would like it, and have gotten enough questions, I decided to just go for it. I don't care if anyone buys anything (I usually end up doing enough damage to make it worthwhile to the demonstrator) but I do like showing off my books, and I'd love someone to go to the monthly workshops with me. Just setting aside that one evening a month to work on them is wonderful, and I find that if I stay caught up on putting my pages together as the events unfold I have a lot better journaling.

The downside: it's not super cheap. The books I do have a base price of $40-50, then there's additional pages I usually add, and shipping. I try to publish them together so I make the most of shipping, but it's usually around $8-10 more, which is sort of a hidden fee. But I justify it for the reasons above, and because I want to have these forever, and this makes it easy and convenient for me to continually save my memories.

My Heritage Maker's rep is Katie Bruggemann, and I'd highly recommend her - she's really low pressure but very helpful. Her website is here.

Hope everyone's coming to my workshop on Thursday the 11th :) If nothing else, I'll have FOOD!